In 2002, the Odyssey probe discovered evidence of past ice on Mars. The U.S. Congress authorized the Iraq War resolution. The Anaheim Angels won the World Series. And in a meadow 15 miles north of Flagstaff, scientists began to monitor and move small plots of soil along a mountain gradient… Read more
Egbert Schwartz
2022 Flagstaff Festival of Science features NAU scientists, artists and educators, Sept. 23-Oct. 2
More than 100 free family-friendly events focus on ancient cultures, the environment and more
The 2022 Festival of Science, a Flagstaff tradition since 1990, kicks off on Friday, Sept. 23, bringing more than 100 free, family-friendly events to the community—many of them highlighting Northern Arizona University faculty and staff as presenters, lecturers and hosts.
This year’s Festival theme is “Pyramids… Read more
Funded through an NIH R21 grant, NAU scientists combine PMI and Ecoss expertise to explore the role of gut microbiota in Alzheimer’s disease
Multidisciplinary team will apply quantitative stable isotope probing (qSIP), a technology widely used in environmental microbiome sciences
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a type of dementia that affects memory, thinking and behavior. According to the Alzheimer’s Association, an estimated 6.2 million Americans are living with this progressive neurologic disorder, and it is the sixth-leading… Read more
Warming slows microbes’ growth, NAU researchers find in first-in-kind long-term experiment
In a first-of-its-kind warming experiment, researchers at Northern Arizona University found that microbes growth rate decreased over 15 years of warming. The research, published this week in Global Change Biology, showed that under warmer climate conditions, growth decreased among all types of microbes in the community, and suggested that a loss of soil carbon may be responsible… Read more
New study shows a few common bacteria account for majority of carbon use in soil
Just a few bacterial taxa found in ecosystems across the planet are responsible for more than half of carbon cycling in soils. These new findings, made by researchers at Northern Arizona University and published in Nature Communications this week, suggest that despite the diversity of microbial taxa found in wild soils… Read more
In wild soil, predatory bacteria grow faster than their prey, NAU study shows
Predatory bacteria—bacteria that eat other bacteria—grow faster and consume more resources than non-predators in the same soil, according to a new study from Northern Arizona University. These active predators, which use wolfpack-like behavior, enzymes, and cytoskeletal “fangs” to hunt and feast on other bacteria, wield important power in determining where… Read more